T Purim and Passover: A Tale of Two Tables By Amy Hirshberg Lederman
32 MARCH/APRIL 2021 | OREGON JEWISH LIFE
he experience of celebrating Jewish holidays has been dramatically altered since the onset of the pandemic more than a year ago. From solitary Passover Seders to attending High Holiday services in our pajamas on zoom, we have tried our best to stay connected to tradition despite the precautions and restrictions COVID-19 has required. Last week we celebrated Purim, with many of us sitting at our kitchen tables zooming a Megillah reading while nibbling on hamantaschen and sipping schnapps. The Megillah, Book of Esther 1:1-5, opens with King Ahashveros making an outlandishly lavish feast (mishteh, in Hebrew) for all of his officials, nobles, armies and servants, from the 127 provinces over which he reigned. It wasn’t just a one-night affair, either, but a huge, elaborate and decadent festival that continued for 180 days! The story goes on to tell us that the drunken king demanded his queen, Vashti, to appear before him to show off her beauty (and who knows what else), but she refused. Her punishment was irrevocable banishment and the replacement by Esther, the most beautiful of all the maidens to come before the king. The king then made Esther’s banquet – a “great feast” called the mishteh gadol – for his officers and servants. Rather than the mishteh described in the Megillah’s opening passages, Esther’s feast, by contrast, was much smaller and less opulent. (Esther 2:18) This seeming contradiction was beautifully interpreted by a
